Cathy's Art Diary

Disappointing exhibition at the Design Museum looking at 60 years of Habitat. I would have loved a lot more of this but it had a feel of being an advertising installation and was style over substance. This anniversary deserved more detail. I did like a fun display of iconic items like a chicken brick shown with modern versions designed to mark the event. There was also a sweet swing outside based on a classic chair design. Closed 11 August 2024

Dry and over intellectualised exhibition at the Design Museum on the designer Enzo Mari. I thought the show failed to give an overview of Mari’s career and ideas but instead delved straight into the detail of his process with dense labels. The show made a point that it had been curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli but I couldn’t find any information on either of them and why this was significant. There were some beautiful objects many of which I recognised as taste influencers in the 1970s and 80s but I wasn’t sure how they fitted together and some sections like a display of scythe had me very confused. Close 8 September 2024 Reviews Guardian Telegraph

Fun exhibition at the Design Museum looking at the phenomena which is Barbie. The show is everything you would want looking at the doll as a fashion icon, leader of sociological change and an innovator of manufacturing techniques. Women of different ages were going starry eyed at different eras and I was definitely in the late 1970s pack. There was a brilliant section looking in detail at the different models of doll and how the design adapted over the years which showed dolls in bright boxes. There was also a section on the Dreamhouse and other accessories. I would have liked more on the clothes you could buy as that was my favourite aspect of the doll. I was fascinated by how it was designed to promote imaginative play and that’s certainly how I used mine. Closes 23 February 2025 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Fascinating online discussion from the British Museum looking in detail at Michelangelo’s Epifania cartoon. Sarah Vowels and Grant Lewis, curators of the excellent exhibition “Michelangelo: The Last Decades” at the museum, introduced us to the cartoon dated from around 1550-3 and its possible iconography. They also talked about the painting based on it by Condivi which was also in the show. Art historian Daniel Godfrey then took us through the history of the cartoon after Michelangelo’s death and how it got to be in the museum’s collection. Finally conservator, Emma Turner led us through the six year conservation project with some great pictures of all the processes and explained what had been discovered during the project. All the talks added to a more rounded view of the picture and its history.

Fascinating discussion at the National Portrait Gallery with some of the judges of this years Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award. The panel included the actor Russell Tovey who described himself as an art geek, Tom Shakespeare disability researcher and sociologist and the founder of the award Tanya Bentley. Bentley guided the discussion as the chair. They talked about the process of choosing the shortlist picking works from digital submissions and viewing a selected 250 in person in a warehouse to be judged anonymously. They discussed how they had to pick quickly and trust their gut instincts. They talked with enthusiasm about a selection of work which they had picked including the prize winners. I learnt a lot about the show, which I had loved, such as the fact that the work had to be on canvas or panel not paper and that this work wasn’t just from the previous year but from 2020 as was the first year the show had returned to the gallery following its refurbishment.

Thin exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery exploring the results of a partnership project with five universities from across England and Wales exploring contemporary portrait photography over the last academic year. The project had invited students to respond to themes in the 2023 Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize following tours and talks at the gallery. There were some interesting pieces but mostly shown on a rolling screen and no explanation of what the themes had been. I thought the work deserved a better presentation with more explanation. Close 8 September 2024